4/ 24, 25 & 26 /18 Yosemite Park

We camped at Bass Lake, Ca which was about 2 hours drive from the center of Yosemite Park over a very scary, windy and hilly road.  I guess the state of California has much confidence in the driving skills of people... no guardrails !  We tested John and Bert and they both passed the test, they drove us in to the village of Yosemite the last three days with out incident, Thank God.



This is a picture of the Valley, Half DomeRock is in the back almost middle with just a little snow left on the top.  LOL!!  I think a couple these visitors thought I wanted their picture.... But I didn't

Several of falls are still flowing but from all reports this will only continue for another couple weeks or so.  Once the snow melt is finish the only falls that will continue throughout the summer is the Bridal Falls.  The snow fall is about 4 inches on the floor of the canyon and 60-80 feet on the mountains.  


This is Yosemite Fall this is actually 7 fall that roll in to one.  It is one of the fall that only last until the middle of May. On our way out the village we talked with a man that was looking through his Binoculars  watching at his wife and some other hikers on the top left of the fall, where the pine trees are.  After he pointed them out to us we too were able to pick them out with binoculars and even got them on our camera.  It was 1:30 pm and he said the Range would be advising then to start back down very soon unless they had flash lights with them.  He was approximately 46 years old and had lost one leg, he had hiked to the ridge where the cluster of trees are on the left earlier (where the fall are the wides in this picture) but said that was enough of a view for him.  

 This is Bridal Falls (below)produce water all year, at some point during the year it produces so much spray that people can't get this close to take pictures.  We could feel the COLD mist from where this picture was taken and we were not as close as we could have gotten.  

 We took a tour and the guide told us that the Park expects 7 thousand visitors this year.  He said the winters are a real busy time, I can't imagine going there in the winter.

This is a measurement of the Flood waters in 1997.

 

 This Rock is 3600 feet high and we are standing at 4,000 feet above sea level.  The Empire State building wouldn't come up quite half way to the top.

This is one of the favorite rock to climb, according to the guide and would take a couple of days to do.

The white spot toward the top of this picture is an unpredictable rock slide that took place last summer. Our guide said his friend was climbing and was just above this spot when the rock slide happened.  He has a brand new appreciation for life now! The trees make it look close to the ground but it is my angle, this is the same mountain you see in the picture above.  

                

This tunnel is solid rock and was made by dynamite blasts, the inside wall are jagged granite all the way through.